Weekend in Scotland

Buachaille Etive Mor

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Friday 31 September 2005

Hasty drive round to Guy's early Friday morning (leaving my house at 3.45 a.m.) after not having had any sleep and playing Poker at Sam's until about 2, we made our way to Luton and met Dave and Nick ready for our flight to Glasgow.

I slept the whole flight and we were soon on the road to Kinlochleven where we had booked the Blackwater Hostel, next to the Ice Factor. I also slept much of the afternoon while the others did a bit of ice and rock climbing.

Saturday 1 October 2005

Our objective for the weekend had included some rock climbing but the weather was a little too bad for that and the rocks would have been wet. The wind wouldn't have helped either.

So we decided to go to the Glencoe Ski Centre car park for an ascent of Meall a' Bhuiridh (1108m) and Creise (1100m) about a four hour walk, nothing too taxing. It was noteworthy how small the mountains seemed since our recent trip to the Alps but it was good to be back in familiar territory: the Highlands of Scotland.

A nice walk to the summit of Meall a' Bhuiridh we chatted with some other parties and made our way quickly across the adjoining ridge to Creise (now to be pronounced in its own special way after the incident with the old man/Creise police!), an extended summit in itself, the actual top being disputed (was disputed?) as to which end of the 2km ridge actually is the Munro. Now we know it's the Northern end (not named on the OS 1:50000) rather than the southern end, Clach Leathad (1099m), just one metre short of it's northern twin.

The return across the adjoining ridge to Meall a' Bhuiridh and back northeast to the car park, we had a pint in the King's House (where I tried to get on the webcam, but failed) and the Boots Bar of the Clachaig Inn on the way back to Kinlochleven.

Sunday 2 October 2005

We had had Ben More (1174m) and Stob Binnein (1165m) in our sights for a while. In fact, in 15 years of coming to Scotland and also proximity to the Lochearnhead Scout Station which I had spent so many winters and Easter periods at, it was surprising that I had never been up either before. They had been attempted, yes, but never successfully ascended, the weather serving to thwart respective efforts.

Starting at Ben More Farm, near Crianlarich, we chose one of the four recommended routes, also the most tedious, an ascent of just about 1000m over 2 km, yes a perfectly trigonometric 30 degrees, no let up, no nice ridge walks or spots to stop and admire the view, even if there was one.

The others got ahead soon enough and I continued my way to the summit, not stopping, left foot, right foot, carry on, mind full of random thoughts and also some not so random.

The summit was reached and the others were cowering behind a rock, having lunched; I had the bothy bag so even that was not used today. I also quickly ate and put on extra clothing, it was very cold, spots of drizzle everywhere and the wind picking up. A quick navigational check ensured we were on our way South to the col at Bealach-eadar-dah Beinn (862m) between Ben More and Stob Binnein. With the wind being high here and the cold really biting I asked, "are we going on to Stob Binnein", to which everyone nodded; this was reached quickly enough and what remained was the relatively straightforward ascent of just over 200m to the next summit.

We dallied for maybe five minutes, another batten-down-the-hatches summit stay and then made our way back down to the bealach and turned West to walk out along the Benmore Glen, a very wet underfoot journey back to Ben More Farm.

A nice drive back to the airport and a slight delay to the returning flight we rounded off a pretty streamlined weekend.

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